A Passing Glimpse of Light
by valecad10
Summary: Our heroes switched bodies, even some of their allies, who done this? Will they be themselves again? Who isn't affected and how will they help them? Armor!Al
1. The Accident

Bragigas mixed up the ingredients for a potion, it allows the heroes to communicate more with each other with mind reading, a sweat of energy fell from his head and his yellow humanoid claw held the mixed ingredients and added them to a transmutation circle, he did it, he sighed in victory wiping away the sweat from his face with his arm, "all done... Now for one last step" he clapped his hands and he hit them to the floor and it emitted a blue energy as the circle made the same color, he smiled at the process, but suddenly the blue glow became a dark purple and the storm covered him, he gasped in horror in the storm, "it can't be!" He yelled as he felt he was sucked in, he holds on but the last of his strength faded as he let go and his last thoughts was his family and friends, "i-i'm... sorry..." he muttered with tears as a bright light engulfed everything and he fell to darkness.

Chapter Two – The Switch part 1

Ed slowly held a hand to his forehead as the room spun into focus. He had never had a headache like this before. It was as if he had a migraine, but also as if the pain was being stored somewhere in the back of his head at the same time. He could feel the pain, and yet he couldn't simultaneously. He held a hand to his forehead as he sat up with a grunt.

Wait. Something wasn't right. He was used to not feeling anything with his right hand, but he could usually feel the metal if it touched anywhere else on his body. He had just touched his right hand to his forehead and felt absolutely nothing. Ed quickly held both his hands in front of him and watched in horror as two very large metal hands stretched out in front of him.

Ed knew those hands. He had been traveling side-by-side with those hands for years. They weren't his hands. He slowly reached up and then did something that he knew he had never been able to do before.

He pulled off his head.

Or rather, Al's head, he realized as he looked down at it. Somehow, he had gotten trapped in the same metal body that Al had been trapped in. And if he was in Al's 'body,' then, logically, Al would be…

Ed slammed his head back on and hurriedly stood up to try and find Al, but then stopped when he realized just how high up he was. He was tall! Really tall! He felt like he would be able to look down on anyone that walked by.

"Cool!" Ed said with a slight laugh, but then stopped. "Great," he muttered sarcastically. "I got Al's voice too." He sighed and then walked over to the bed he had been sleeping in last night, hoping that 'he' was still sleeping there.

A small body was curled up tightly under the sheets, but Ed could instantly recognize the blond hair sticking out. This was just weird. He quickly pulled back the sheets with his huge fingers to reveal himself, tossing and turning in his sleep. Ed could see a thin layer of sweat on his forehead, and his eyebrows were turned down unhappily.

"Hey, um… Al?" he said slowly, reaching out to poke his own shoulder. This was way too weird. "Come on, it's time to wake up, buddy."

"Mom…" 'Ed' muttered as he turned over in his sleep. "I'm sorry Mom… I didn't know…"

"Al," Ed said softly, reaching out his hand and pressing it gently against 'his' forehead. He hoped the cool metal would soothe Al a little. "I know, it's a really bad dream. Just wake up and it'll all be over." He wondered if Al was having his own bad dream about their mom, or if he was actually suffering from the same bad dreams Ed had every night. Either way, Ed knew from the body posture that it certainly wasn't a good dream. Ed tried poking the fleshy shoulder again, but the boy still didn't wake up.

Ed sighed. He knew that if someone called himshort while he was sleeping he would instantly wake up, but he wasn't sure if it would work on Al. Could it possibly be just a physical reaction? Ed sighed. He didn't want to do that, since he'd really be calling himself short. But desperate times called for desperate measures. He badly hoped this would work, or otherwise he'd feel even worse.

"Come on, pipsqueak, wake up," Ed growled, going down to eye level with the bed. A pair of golden eyes immediately snapped open, but then 'Ed' quickly jumped up and backed against the wall.

"Who are you?! What do you want?!" he demanded quickly. "And where's Brother?!" Ed sighed in relief. This was definitely Al. "And what happened to my voice?!" Al continued, clutching at his throat in shock, which soon turned to horror when he realized that an automail and flesh hand were actually clutching at his throat. And hurting it, on top of that.

"It's okay, Al," Ed said slowly as he stood up. Poor Al was so scared that Ed could actually see him shaking as he looked down at his hands. "It's me, Ed. I'm right here."

"Brother?" Al squeaked as he looked up at Ed. "What happened?"

"I don't know how, but we switched bodies," Ed sighed. Al slowly reached back with his left hand and grabbed a chunk of unbraided golden hair, just to be sure. "But we're going to fix it, okay?" Ed said determinedly. Al nodded, and Ed noticed that his bottom lip was trembling a little.

"Al?" Ed said slowly. "Do you… Do you need a hug?"

Al looked up at his older brother and nodded fiercely. Ed held out his arms, and Al quickly ran into them just as the dam broke loose.

"I don't want to be you, Brother," Al sobbed into Ed's chest plate. Ed slowly wrapped his arms around Al, unsure of how hard he should hold Al. He felt like Al needed a nice hard squeeze, but he also didn't want to hurt him.

"N-N-No offe-e-e-ense," Al continued, the tears streaming down his cheeks. "I just wanna be myself again! And I don't even know why I'm crying like th-i-is!"

"It's okay," Ed whispered softly "You haven't cried in years, Al. Just let it out." Ed could see the blond braid whip up and down as Al nodded with his head still pressed against Ed's cold metal body.

"It feels good, doesn't it?" Ed said as Al finally pulled away from him. Al nodded with a small smile as he wiped the last remnants of the tears away with the back of his hand.

"But how do you know that?" Al said, his breath coming in short hiccups. He had really been crying hard. "I haven't seen you cry in ages."

"Well," Ed nervously scratched the back of his head. "Um… there were times… I had to get it out at some point… you weren't really around… And I made sure that no one could see me…"

"Brother?!" Al gasped, looking at Ed with wide eyes. "Are you saying that you cried when I wasn't around?"

"You're a dead man if you tell anyone else," Ed growled. He realized that he wasn't able to send the same sort of death glare he could in his old body, but he did manage to narrow his eyes a bit. "Besides, it wasn't like I put 'Weeping Tuesday' on my schedule or anything. There were just sometimes – like with Nina – that I needed to let it out, so I went into the bathroom and locked the door." Al still had eyes the size of dinner plates, so Ed repeated his warning a second time. "If you tell anybody, you'll be in more pain than when I got my automail."

"You mean my automail," Al said softly, looking down at his right arm. He flapped it up and down a few times as if it were a wing instead of an arm. "I never knew it was this heavy."

"And I never knew that you could actually have a headache," Ed moaned, holding a hand back up against his head. "That has got to be one of the weirdest sensations I've ever felt."

"Yeah," Al said with a smile hinting at his lips. "That was what happened whenever Stegotchi hit me with one of his wrenches. It takes a while to get used to it. Fights are even weirder. Then you get that creepy hurting feeling all over."

"Well, I'll be looking forward to that," Ed moaned, sitting down on the floor. Al jumped down from the bed and sat down next to Ed. "You should put on a shirt," Ed told him, noticing for the first time that all Al was wearing was a pair of boxers. "You'll catch a cold running around like that."

"Says you!" Al laughed, a smile stretching across his face. "How many times have I told you that?"

"Just listen to your older brother and do it," Ed sighed. "I just asked you to put on a shirt, it's not like I told you to do anything really complicated."

"Yes sir," Al laughed, picking up a simple black shirt without sleeves from up off the floor. "You know, you're a bit of a slob, Brother," Al commented as he slipped the shirt over his head.

"Yes, I know, Al," Ed sighed. "And I constantly have you to remind me of that. But could we focus on more pressing matters?"

"Like what?" Al asked innocently, a chunk of golden hair falling in front of his eyes as he cocked his head to one side.

"Like we've got to get you ready for the day," Ed sighed. "I've got to see Mustang today, remember?"

"Oh yeah," Al sighed. "I guess I'll get dressed, then. You want me to wear your usual outfit, right?"

"Duh," Ed sighed. "What else would I wear? And you have to braid your hair like I would," he added as Al pulled on Ed's pants and slid the belt into place.

"Okay," Al agreed, pulling his hair into a rough ponytail. "Where's that red band-thingy that you always use?"

"Um… It's somewhere on the floor, I think," Ed said as he stood up and looked at the floor beneath him. "There it is!" he said triumphantly, pointing down at the floor right in front of his left foot. He bent down to retrieve it, but his large fingers couldn't get a grasp on the small band.

"I got it," Al said, running to the rescue and retrieving the little band. "It's okay," he told Ed. "It takes a bit of practice to pick up things that small." He reached back and started to braid his hair as Ed turned around and sat on the bed.

"Uh, Brother?" Al said after a moment of silence. "I… Owww!" Ed turned around and laughed when he noticed that Al had gotten his automail hand caught in his long hair.

"It's not funny!" Al protested indignantly. "It really hurts! Ow!"

"I know it does," Ed said with a laugh as he got up to help Al. "I just forgot that I used to do that before I learned the right technique. Let's see…" he mumbled, trying to gently pick up Al's arm a little.

"Owww!" Al squealed, clutching his left hand to his scalp.

"Hold still Al," Ed told him, grabbing Al's left arm and pulling it back down by his side. "I'm not going to be able to untangle this very well since your– my- whoever's hands are so big," he told Al as he put his left hand gently on the top of Al's scalp. "So this might hurt a little."

"What are you going to-" Al started to ask, but then stopped as Ed yanked his automail arm away from his hair. Al shrieked, grabbing at his head with his left hand again.

"There," Ed said brightly, putting Al's hand down by his side again. "It helps if you practice with doll hair," he told Al as he gently picked up his golden hair and started to braid it in hopes of soothing Al a little. He fumbled with the hair a few times, but he finally managed to get it into a reasonable looking braid.

"Thanks Brother," Al sighed as he stood up and grabbed Ed's black jacket. "I'm sorry I ripped out a bunch of your hair."

"It'll grow back," Ed said dismissively. "Don't worry about it."

"How am I going to act like you, Brother?" Al worried as he pulled on the white gloves. "We may be brothers, but we're completely different!"

"Not completely," Ed corrected. "And you can start by calling me 'Al.'"

"That's so weird!" Al moaned, shaking his hands up and down as if he had spilled a nasty liquid on them. "It's like I've got some split-personality disorder or something! It's sooo weird!"

"It's not weird, Brother," Ed told him, trying to act as much like Alphonse as he could. "You've called me Al as long as I can remember. Why should today be any different?"

"But-"

"Say it."

"But it's so weird, Al!" Al moaned. "I don't think I'll ever be able to get used to this!"

"You don't have to get used to it unless you want to permanently switch bodies," Ed told him. "And there are some other things you'll have to work on too. Repeat after me. I, Edward Elric,"

"I, Edward Elric," Al said slowly. He looked a little pale from the thought of having to act like Ed for who knew how long.

"Am a hopeless potty-mouth."

"Am a hopeless potty-mouth," Al repeated dutifully, a small smile crossing his lips. But it quickly vanished when Ed said the next part for him to repeat.

"Bitch, bastard, shit and hell."

"I can't say all that!" Al screamed with a horrified look on his face.

"Say it," Ed growled, grabbing the back of Al's shirt. "You're in my body now, people expect me to swear. They're going to know something's wrong if I don't swear."

"Fine!" Al yelled back. "Let them find out! Then maybe we could get some help and go back to normal! But I can't say all those things!" He narrowed his golden eyes stubbornly and stared hard at Ed.

"Fine," Ed growled, letting go of Al's shirt. "You want people to find out, then let them find out. But don't say I didn't warn you," he said, and then suddenly stamped his metal foot on top of Al's flesh one. Hard.

"Owww!" Al screamed, picking up his foot and starting to hop around the room in circles. "That hurt, Brother! What the hell did you do tha-" He stopped and immediately let go of his foot, clutching both his hands to his mouth. Ed would have smirked in triumph if he had a mouth to smirk with.

"I didn't mean that!" Al said quickly, letting go of his mouth enough to say a few words. "I didn't mean that!"

"That doesn't mean you can take it back," Ed told him as Al clamped a hand over his mouth and shook his head furiously. "Now repeat it. Bitch, bastard, shit and hell."

"B-B-Bi," Al stuttered, trying to form his mouth over the words. Ed slowly curled his right hand into a fist and raised it up in warning to Al, who quickly managed to stutter out the words in one long string.

"Bitchbastardshitenhell!" he panted out triumphantly, his face pale with the effort.

"Very good, erm, Brother," Ed said slowly, not used to using the title. "Maybe if you practice those enough, then you'll be able to move on to worse swears, like fu-"

"Brother!" Al said quickly, cutting his brother off.

"Best word in the dictionary," Ed said happily. He wasn't able to smile anymore, but he would have if he could. "And you have to call me Al, Brother."

"I'm not going to say that one, no matter what you say, Al," Al shook his head from side to side as he talked; making his braid hit one shoulder and then the other. "I'll say the other ones so people won't suspect anything, but I'm not going to say that one."

"All right, all right," Ed sighed, throwing his hands up in the air in defeat. "I give up."

"Thank you," Al sighed as he grabbed Ed's red coat and pulled it on. "Now, could we please go get some breakfast? I'm starving." Ed laughed and nodded. He had never realized how good it would sound to hear Al say those words, even if he wasn't really back to normal. They aren't ready for what is next.


	2. The Switch

I slowly gained consciousness and questioned myself.

'What happened? Oh, that's right. I went after Jason. Wait, JASON!'

"Jason!" I screamed out, but something wasn't right. This wasn't my voice. It was a darker, muscular voice. I looked down. The same black armor, black and green wings and green tail. 'But wait, I have a AM-Bian's body.' I reached up and felt my hair. Longer and green. 'IT CAN'T BE! I'M ZAKUTOR!'

I looked around, finally acknowledging my surroundings. There was Yugo, my brother Matt, Az, and ME. All on a transmutation circle. You could see the rest of our group had passed out at the entrance of the tower during the transmutation.

'But if I'm in Zakutor's body, then...' Who else is in each of our bodies?

Yugo was slowly getting up.

"Ah! Yugo!" Zakutor's voice. It's too weird. 'Wait. That can't be Yugo. It has to be someone else.'

"So, who are you?"

"What are you talking about? I'm your brother Matt." Yugo's body said. "Wait, that isn't my voice."

"I know. You're in Yugo's body." I quickly said, without hesitation.

"Wait. What? You're kidding, Zakutor."

"I'm not Zakutor. I'm Ellie." I was thinking very intently about this.

"Oh, god. If there is one. This can't happen. I just switched back when i got switched with a mutant cow!"

Slowly, the tiny Tofu bird got up. 'Oh, no... Who's in Az's body?'

"Chirp. CHIRP. CHIRP!" (Why do i feel strange? Wait. Did I just chirp?) The Tofu seemed to be pointing with a tiny wing at Matt in Yugo's body, and back to himself. They took it as him saying, 'Wait, that's me!'

"Oh, Jesus. It's Yugo." Ellie sighed mentally.

"Yugo!" Matt picked Yugo up under his shoulders and brought him into his lap. "It's me, Matt! I'm in your body!"

Yugo looked perplexed, even though he couldn't talk.

The three turned their heads Matt's body, who was in Kewl Breeze form and has trouble controlling his ice powers and trying to move his arms like he is trying to fly.

"Well, I guess we know who's in your body, Matt."

"Az? But why my body?"

"Probably because you three were touching each other as the transmutation was going on. You all switched bodies with each other. And I switched bodies with Zakutor." Ellie pointed to herself.

The Tofu finally flies with his powers and he sat like his old body near the others in the corner.

I joked about Matt's body acting like a Tofu, and then we turned our head to Zakutor.

I slightly shook him, and he slurred out something that sounded like 'ffurve maar minshishh.', which I took as 'five more minutes.'

I started to kick him slowly, getting faster. Soon enough, he was up shouting "I GET IT I GET IT STOP KICKING ME IT HURTS JUST LIKE STEGOTCHI'S YELLING!"

"Wait. That isn't my voice."

"Yeah. That's because you're in my- or Ellie's body."

He looked down. "Yeap. Definitely."

He started to take a peek down my shirt as I yelled at him, "DON'T even, Zakutor."

"Fine, Fine. So who's who over there?"

"I'm Matt, that's Az in my body, and Yugo's in Az's body."

"Yugo's in the WHAT!" He started cracking up and was soon full out laughing.

Yugo sighed and flew over to Zakutor casually and sunk his birdie beak into Zakutor's hand.

"AAAUgh! Jesus, Yugo, just because you're a Tofu doesn't mean you have to be the most weirdest Eliatrope- or Tofu- on earth!"

"Whatever. Just don't completely wreck my body, Yugo." Yugo looked up surprised and confused as if to say, 'Why?'

"We need to get to the point." Ellie interrupted. "How did we get like this?"

"Someone clearly used alchemy." Matt said. Yugo looked like he wanted to say something, but all he could do was chirp. Matt rubbed his body and he fell over in enjoyment. He is a Eliatrope now, which means he has Yugo's powers now, he summoned two blue portals successfully and he chuckled as the portals vanished.

"But, how could he do it? And who did it?''


End file.
